Health coaches are there to support their clients through an eating plan prescribed by their doctor. On the other hand, health coaches do not diagnose, order or evaluate laboratory tests. They do not prescribe any nutritional food or exercise plans, supplements or medications. At ITN, we consider the safety of our coaches’ ability to practice to be a high priority.
Therefore, we teach Scope of Practice very early in the curriculum. It is important to keep in mind that a coach is not in a position to diagnose, treat or prescribe, but to educate clients about the available lab work so that they make the best informed decisions when it comes to their own health. More and more health coaches are looking at and even ordering lab tests, but what if you don’t know what lab test to order or and you don’t know what to do once you have the results, if you don’t know how to understand or interpret them. It behooves anyone who calls themselves a health coach or health consultant to know what the rules are when it comes to the unlicensed dispensing of medical or health and wellness information.
A recent court case has highlighted the extent of the practice of health and wellness coaching on a national level. Therefore, use your own judgement and your own level of risk tolerance as a guide, knowing that legally, as it stands now, health coaches should not ask for tests and labs. A health coach may work with clients individually within their own private practice, and many work in conjunction with a doctor’s or physician’s practice. Health coaches can teach their methods and offer support, but any kind of ordering, interpretation or recommendation in terms of prescribing definitely crosses the line into the practice of medicine.
Doing a thyroid panel, testing for coeliacs, testing for iron levels, you know, the list went on and on and on and I thought to myself, wow, things have really changed since I started health coaching because I would never have suggested anything. Maybe you’ve thought about calling yourself a health consultant or a health coach, but you’re actually an NP or an MD. Medical Health & Fitness introduced the Blood Lab Wellness Specialist Certification Course to help those in the health, wellness and fitness world learn to read and understand the Blood Lab specifications. Health coaches who use health information to understand their clients and use coaching tools to help them transform their health are ultimately more successful than coaches who simply educate and advise their clients.
ADAPT’s health coach training programme is an approved health and wellness coach training and education programme by the National Board of Health and Wellness Coaching (NBHWC). Achieving health is a team sport and when coaches partner with physicians, dietitians, nutritionists and therapists, they are not only meeting the needs of their clients, but also advancing their own careers.
